


Lethe's Bramble

by AFTanith



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Break Up, Canonically Ignored Rape, Double Standard Rape: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, F/F, Ignored Epiphany, Memory Alteration, Unfortunate Implications
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8264786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFTanith/pseuds/AFTanith
Summary: Everyone could admit that Willow violated Tara's mind, but not everyone could admit that there was a bit more to it than that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> prompts: femmeslash + break.
> 
>  
> 
> Written very quickly and with the constraint of wanting to reach an even 100-increment of words (between 100 and 1001). I might come back to it at some point in the future and polish it up a bit more.

"So... I heard about you and Tara."

Willow turned to him with dull, unhappy eyes and a blank expression. "What's your point, Xander?"

"Nothing," he said with a shrug and that familiar Xander look of non-confrontation on his face. "I just wanted to let you know I'm here for you, if you need to talk. I'm not exactly relationship guy, but maybe I could help."

"I don't need any help. It's not a big deal. We're just on a break."

"That's not the way I heard."

She was just so frustrated, so torn up by her loss of Tara and the fact that her magic--the thing she loved most about herself--was somehow the root of her current problems, that she couldn't help herself even as she felt her temper edging toward its boiling point. "Oh, yeah?" she demanded. "And what did you hear, exactly?"

"From what I hear," he said, an edge of actual backbone in his voice, "you did Tara pretty wrong, Will. And I don't just mean our group amnesia session."

"It's none of your business," she snapped, and somehow it felt like the world had turned on its head. Xander standing up for himself was one thing, but standing up against her? That was new, and Willow couldn't pretend she liked it.

"Oh, I think it is. Because maybe you've forgotten, but I haven't; we're a family, and Tara's a part of it. And you hurt her. Unforgivably."

"What are you talking about?"

"You erased her memory, Willow. More than once. Did you sleep with her after you did it?"

"I repeat: none of this is your business."

"Did you sleep with her?"

Willow stared blankly at him, wondering what the hell this was about. She knew he had a bit of thing for thinking about her and Tara, but this didn't seem to be anything like that. He seemed to think a yes would prove some kind of point, one she couldn't yet fathom.

"Fine," he said finally. "You don't have to answer me. But I'll ask you this, then: Do you remember when I cast that love spell on Cordelia, only it went wrong and worked on everyone else instead? You and Buffy and all those other girls were throwing themselves at me, and I didn't want any of it. But what if I had, Will? What would it have been if I had taken one of you up on your offer? What would I have been if I had sex with someone who was under a spell?"

Willow felt the floor drop out from beneath her for a single instant, and then a cloud of fury slammed into her mind, brushing aside any hint of her concern that maybe he had a point. Of course he didn't have a point. (Right?) "It's not the same thing!"

"If you say so. But from where I'm standing, I don't see the difference."

"Get out, Xander." Her voice rang hollow, and she pointed toward the front door of Buffy's house. "I'm done talking about this."

"Okay," he said, and she noted with a flush of triumphant relief that his posture sagged slightly in apparent defeat. "I'll go. Just... think about what I said, please?"

Willow stared him down, her arms crossed over her chest while her fingers itched to hex him for having the gall to accuse her of something so vile. After a moment, he seemed to accept her silence as his answer, and he meandered out the door with a distinct aura of sorrow.

She never did think again about what he'd said.

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't consider the sex Willow had with Tara in the time between Willow's spell in _All the Way_ and Tara's realization during _Once More With Feeling_ to be rape, that's your problem. I'm absolutely not going to argue with anyone about it. As far as I'm concerned, it was absolutely, 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt nonconsensual sex in which one party gave the other a "mind-altering substance" to coerce consent.
> 
> I'm fully prepared to admit, however, that Xander's probably a bit out of character here in the sense that I don't think he's quite so self-aware as to really give his actions in _Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered_ this much moral consideration. But he's the "heart" of the Scoobies, Willow's oldest friend, and the only person who could talk her down at the end of Season Six, so he's the one I chose to confront her for this. (Though it's probably more likely for Tara to confront her; there's a strong possibility I'll end up writing a version of that confrontation, too.)
> 
>  
> 
> [Prompt me.](http://aftanith-writes.tumblr.com/submit)


End file.
